The invention relates to compositions for ingestion by ruminants, such as foodstuff compositions or compositions for veterinary or prophylactic use. It also relates to a process for the preparation of such compositions and the use of these compositions for the feeding of ruminants.
Ruminants are capable of synthesising the aminoacids which are essential for building the proteins of the organism from carbohydrates, such as cellulose, the hemicelluloses, starch and soluble sugars, and from nitrogen-containing foodstuffs which are not proteins, such as urea and certain ammonium salts. During digestion, the carbohydrates are largely degraded in the rumen by various types of specific bacterial enzymes, to give intermediate products (cellobiose, maltose, glucose, xylose, uronic acids and the like), whose nature depends on that of the starting carbohydrates. These products are subsequently converted, by other bacteria, into final products, including short-chain volatile fatty acids such as acetic acid. The energy provided by the carbohydrates in particular allows the flora of the rumen to produce microbial proteins, inter alia with the ammonia liberated by bacterial hydrolysis of the nitrogen-containing substances.
The conversion of the carbohydrates is accompanied by the formation of waste products such as methane. Abnormally high proportions of this product lead to high losses of energy.
If the rumen is contaminated with protozoa, which contamination can, for example, result from the ingestion of contaminated drinking water or contaminated forage or from contact with infected animals, a reduction in the formation of acetic acid in the rumen is observed.
Moreover, a reduction in the efficiency of the synthesis of the bacterial proteins in the rumen is observed. To compensate this reduction in yield, it is necessary to complement the feed of the ruminants by means of protein substances such as oilseed cakes, cereals and edible flours, of which a part could be used for direct human nutrition. This runs counter to all the efforts made to increase human foodstuff resources.
The destruction of the protozoa present in the rumen, so as to improve the synthesis of proteins, is furthermore very difficult. In fact, it requires the selection of a fauna-removing agent, which is capable of destroying the protozoa present in the rumen without at the same time destroying the other micro-organisms, necessary for normal digestion. Furthermore, it is necessary that this fauna-removing agent should not be toxic to the animal.